Is the Apple Watch Series 3 Good for Runners? Our Editor-in-Chief Has Some Early Thoughts

Built-in cellular lets her leave her iPhone at home, but how about that battery life?

As soon as I heard about the new Apple Watch Series 3, I couldn’t wait to put it through its paces. Not only did its sleek gold aluminum case and multitude of band choices—from sporty to sophisticated—make it the best-looking sports watch I’ve ever worn, but the built-in cellular connection would let me finally leave the iPhone at home. (No more Facebook tempting me at stoplights!) But with the Chicago Marathon coming up on my race calendar, I had one big question: Would this $399 watch last me through four-plus hours of running with enough battery left to call my loved ones at the finish line?

On several training runs in New York over the past week, I began testing it out. My early verdict? The Series 3 is a great upgrade for runners. Here are my initial thoughts:

Phone calls take some getting used to. Siri made it easy to call any of my contacts mid-stride. And while I didn’t need to hold the watch up to my mouth to chat, I found myself having to raise my voice—as if I were talking into a speakerphone—so my husband could hear me over the noise of traffic.

Battery drain is a risk, but there’s a workaround. Short workouts were no problem, but even though I took the watch fresh off the charger for a 20-miler last Sunday, the battery died just shy of three hours. I did have the GPS going inside Apple’s Workout app while also using the heart rate monitor and Apple Music playlists downloaded directly to the watch. (Thankfully, I knew enough not to stream songs.) And I Bluetoothed that music directly to my headphones—all of which taxes the battery. The fix, according to Apple, is to switch to Power Saving Mode in the Workout app, which turns off the watch’s cellular and built-in heart rate sensor during your long run; that should get you about five hours of GPS tracking. I’ll give that a try on next weekend’s long run and report back.

The safety features are great. Swipe up from the watch face to access a flashlight control, which turns the face into either a steady or strobing safety beacon for night runs. And while we hope you’ll never have to use it, you can activate the SOS function simply by holding down the side button for two seconds, which will call emergency services as well as send a text and your location to your emergency contacts. For more mundane race-day location tracking, add family and friends on your iPhone’s Find My Friends app, which will allow you to share your watch location even with your phone left at home.

After just a few training runs, my early impression of the Series 3 is that it’s a sleek, easy-to-use mini-iPhone right on your wrist. My RW colleagues and I will continue testing the battery life, as well as third-party running apps, and report back with updates soon.

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